2022 Was Another Warm Year In Vermont, Consistent With Climate Change

Sunset on a very steamy early August evening in St.
Albans, Vermont looked much like South Florida. In 
Burlington, 2022 was the fifth hottest on record.

There might be something to this climate change thing, at least judging from the climate stats for Burlington, Vermont. 

The year 2022 ended up being the fifth warmest year on record in Burlington.  It's the third year in a row that is in the top five list of warmest years.

On top of that, all but one of the past seven years in Burlington are in that top 10 warmest year list.  Reliable records for Burlington go back to the 1880s.

Despite the joke at the start of this post, I know that one year's stats in one city in the world do nothing to prove or disprove climate change. However, Burlington's experience is consistent with the rest of the world. 

We don't have the stats for 2022 for the entire world yet, but the year will almost certainly be in the top 10 warmest.  The top 10 warmest years on Earth have been since 2015. At least since good records started around a century and a half ago.

Back here in Vermont, we didn't have any off the charts warm months, but the year's heat was consistent. In Burlington, May was tied for fourth warmest;  August was fourth warmest; November was tied for second warmest and December was fifth warmest.

Only one month in Burlington (January) was cooler than the 20th century average. February, June and September in Burlington were marginally cooler than the new average, based on the mean temperature from 1990 to 2020.  However, those 30 years were definitely hotter than the previous few centuries' average. 

TEMPERATURE EXTREMES

We did have one all-time record high for a month. It was 76 degrees on November 6, the hottest November day on record. 

One thing I've noticed is that we've seen more remarkably warm nights in recent years.

The strongest example came during that November heat wave. 

The low temperature on November 6 in Burlington was 62 degrees, which was the warmest overnight low on record for the month of November. The 62 degrees broke the record which had been tied the day before. 

In the summer, we're seeing more nights that stay at or above 70 degrees, which is an unofficial mark of a truly oppressive night. Overnights that stay in the upper 60s are almost as bad.

On August 4-8, the overnight lows in Burlington were 71, 70, 67, 77, 68.  From July 18-25 we endured eight consecutive nights that remained at or above 67 degrees.

During that same July hot period, Burlington had six consecutive days that reached into the low 90s. That's only the seventh time since 1890 that the city had that many days in a row making it to 90 degrees.

Another notable record high during the year was the 78 degrees on October 26, which was the hottest for so late in the season. 

RAINFALL

Torrential rain pours down on South Burlington, Vermont
on September 13, 2022.

Precipitation in Vermont wasn't as extreme as temperatures. Total rainfall (and melted snow) for 2022 in Burlington amounted to 37.53 inches, or 2.24 inches above normal. 

This amount was nowhere near the top 10 wettest or top 10 driest list of annual rainfall in Vermont. However, April tied for tenth wettest and September was fourth wettest.

Along with rising temperatures, climate change appears to be making Vermont more prone to heavier rainfall, although the trend is not as strong as the temperature rise we've been seeing over the past two or three decades.

Flooding has gotten more common, too.  In 2022, Vermont lucked out, in that we didn't suffer any catastrophic inundations during the year.

Some local flooding was reported in and near Rutland on May 16 during some local thunderstorms. Same thing happened mostly along the western slopes of the Green Mountains in and near Chittenden County on September 13 and 19, with minor flooding reported. 

Another storm on October 14 put some roads under water in north central Vermont, but again, the damage wasn't severe. And of course in that huge multi-faceted storm on December 23 some of the roads that were shut down by the storm were flooded.

The National Weather Service office in South Burlington also compiled some statewide stats. Here are a few:

The greatest 24 hour rainfall in Burlington was 3.61 inches in Underhill on September 13.

The award for the town with the wettest week goes to Richmond, which had 6.81 inches during the week ending September 20.

SNOWFALL

Snowfall in the winter of 2021-22 was so-so, as was the snow at the start of the current winter.  The winter of 2021-22 brought 70.7 inches of snow to Burlington, which was just slightly below normal.  

So far this winter, (and I know the winter is still very young) total snowfall is 17.4 inches or nearly nine inches below normal. 

The snowiest 24 hour period in Vermont goes to a non-surprise town - Warren - had 22 inches on December 16-17.

 OTHER EXTREMES

Some other notable weather moments from 2022:

March 6: Record high early season temperatures.  Montpelier reached 68 degrees, obliterating the old record of 55.  Burlington reached 64 degrees, breaking the old record of 61 degrees that had stood for more than a century. 

Tree and wire damage in St. Albans, Vermont after a 
late season snowstorm on April 19, 2022.

April 19: A late season snowstorm cut power to 22,000 Vermonters and dumped three to eight inches of snow on mostly the western half of the state. 

Thundersnow was reported in northwestern Vermont. Trees were already budding, so that compounded the damage caused by the weight of snow on limbs.  

May 21: A severe thunderstorm produced a microburst in and around Williston, Vermont, which took down dozens of trees, cut power and blocked roads. 

June 18-19: Unusual spell of cold, windy weather. On the 18th, the high temperature of 55 degrees in Burlington was a record low high for the date. Snow and ice accumulated atop Mount Washington, New Hampshire. Wind gusts to 45 mph under sunny skies caused scattered power outages on the 19th. 

July 18: Two tornadoes touched down in Addison County. One was an EF-1 the other an EF-0.  The storms were kind of unusual, as the parent storms weren't super strong, but contained quite a bit of rotation, allowing the twisters to form..

July 21: A severe weather outbreak swept much of Vermont.,  The weather system contained some supercells which prompted tornado warnings in the Northeast Kingdom. No tornadoes are known to have touched down, but there was plenty of tree damage and hail up to the size of tennis balls.

Aug. 30: Severe thunderstorms raced northward up the Champlain Valley, causing pockets of serious tree damage near the shore in Burlington and Colchester, West Milton and St. Albans Bay.  

Possible funnel cloud over Lake Champlain looking northwest
from South Burlington, Vermont, November 6, 2022.

Nov: 6: In addition to the record heat, strong, out of season thunderstorms formed over northwestern Vermont. A possible funnel cloud formed over Lake Champlain, and some areas in Vermont received up to three inches of rain. 

Nov. 12: Remnants of Hurricane Nicole brought temperatures to record high  levels in the early morning hours.  It reached 71 degrees before dawn in Burlington. 

Dec 16-17: The first of two storms within a week that cut power to large swaths of Vermont hit. This one was a wet snowstorm that dumped six to 18 inches of slush.  The heavy accumulation snapped trees and power lines, cutting electricity to more than 100,000 Vermonters. 

Dec. 23-24. The famous "bomb cyclone" which caused destructive weather from Washington State to New England hit Vermont pretty heavily.  Wind gusted to 71 mph in Burlington, the second highest wind gust on record there. There was heavy power line and tree damage...